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Book Summary

Reviewed by Matt Berman

In Village, outcasts from other places, often wounded or handicapped in mind, body, or spirit, have always been welcome. It's a simple place, but friendly and kind. It welcomed little Matty when he appeared one day out of Forest, though his abusive past had made him a thief and liar, and soon enough softened him with kindness. Taken in by Seer, an old blind man who can see what others cannot, he has grown into youth and hopes to become Messenger when he is given his adult name.

But things are changing: people are becoming less kind, and talking about closing Village to outsiders, Forest hides a malevolence that is making it lethally dangerous, and Matty is beginning to discover within himself a gift for healing that frightens him. When Seer sends him to fetch Kira from her village on the other side of Forest before Village is closed, Matty does not know if he can bring both of them safely back.

Is It Any Good?

4

Fans of The Giver series who are looking for resolution in MESSENGER will be disappointed. Though we know now what happened to the characters from the previous books when they grew up, a whole host of other questions, especially about the nature of the world and how it's changing, are left unanswered.

Parents need to know that Lois Lowry breaks a cardinal rule of children's literature: Child characters whom the reader has gotten to know aren't supposed to die. Here one does, though Lowry has kept the reader at such an emotional distance that it is not as devastating as it might be. The death is a Christ-like sacrifice to save the world from the amorphous evil that's tying it up in knots, thereby ratcheting up the allegorical quotient of the whole series, but some children may find it disturbing. Lowry's writing is, as always, rich and beautifully textured, and her story is gripping -- but while a little ambiguity can be intriguing, it's a spice best used sparingly.

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